In This Article:
-
Elon Musk’s growing political involvement and extensive workload across multiple companies, including Tesla and X, and his new White House role, have raised concerns about his ability to effectively manage them all. Tesla’s stock has dropped significantly.
Back when Elon Musk was merely running Tesla and trying to get Twitter out of bankruptcy, he admitted he was “worried” about the toll it was taking on his well-being. Now, a few years later—and while still also working on Neuralink, xAI, SpaceX, and the Boring Company—Musk has taken on another role at the White House.
With this workload, it’s reasonable to ask if any of the companies Musk has founded or leads get his full attention—and if they are suffering because of it.
A quick look at Tesla’s share price paints a somewhat murky picture.
At the time of writing, the EV maker’s share price is down approximately 54% from its peak in December, and down 41.4% for 2025 thus far.
Correspondingly, Musk’s net worth has fallen by $185 billion since its peak, also in December, now sitting at $301 billion per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. While the figures may sound alarming, in context they are less so: Musk is still the richest person on the planet, and sits $85 billion ahead of the next person on the world’s-richest list: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
But while Musk is still worth billions, Tesla shareholders cannot afford to be so relaxed about a significant portion of their stock’s value vanishing.
When Tesla’s tanking stock price was posted on Twitter, Musk responded: “It will be fine long-term.”
But in the short term, the EV maker has some pressing issues to address. Musk’s sudden interest in politics across the globe—not only in the U.S. but also the U.K., Germany, Canada, and Argentina—has prompted a boycott of the Tesla brand.
This has included customers canceling orders, showrooms and charging stations being set on fire, cybertrucks set alight, and foreign politicians supporting voters who shun the brand.
These issues would be enough to challenge any CEO—never mind an individual who has also been tasked with cutting $1 trillion in federal government spending.
When Musk was asked by Fox News how he was managing to run his businesses, he responded: “With great difficulty.”
The Tesla CEO didn’t expand on that difficulty, instead moving the conversation back to politics: “I’m just here trying to make government more efficient, eliminate waste and fraud, and so far we’re making good progress.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Problems at X
Tesla isn’t Musk’s only cause for concern.